Eastern Bounced From Tourney

As Eastern head coach Jeremy Hill has been saying all year, the Eagles could not put together four consecutive quarters of good basketball Wednesday night. It was the third quarter that put the Ironton St. Joseph Flyers past the Eagles in a 47-36 loss.

“We caught them at the right moment,” Hill said. “We just didn’t carry it for four quarters.”

A layup and foul halfway through the fourth sealed the deal for Ironton St. Joseph to advance to the sectional title as they took a double-digit lead.

Wednesday’s night game looked to be a very even matchup and close game in the first half. Eastern came into the game as the underdog with a record of 2-19 while St. Joseph was 10-10 on the season.

The Flyers struggled to score against Eastern’s defense in the first and second quarters. The first half consisted of back-and-forth action, but the Eagles looked like the more dominant team.

Senior Chase Cook hustled hard in his last high school game, taking two offensive charges and contributed two steals in the first half. Eastern went on a 10-2 run to end the second quarter for a 19-13 lead at halftime.

“Offensively, we were very patient which was good. Defensively I think we had one of the best game plans we could’ve had for anybody this year,” head coach Jeremy Hill said. ”We were executing it in the first half and the second half we went away from it.”

St Joseph looked like a different team after the half though, taking the lead with two big 3-pointers halfway through the third to give the Flyers a 26-21 lead over the Eagles. The third quarter presented the Eagle downfall.

St. Joseph outscored Eastern 19-6 in the third and made a jump shot at the buzzer to lead 32-25 going into the final quarter to seal the deal for the rest of the game.

Only five players scored for Eastern, but three had 10 points, including Cook, Jett Facemyer and Daschie Facemyer. Also contributing to the Eagle loss were 15 team turnovers and only six made shots in each half.